Vengeance Gig
by CMDonovann
Summary: A girl named Cora Andrews is stuck when she is attacked by Paladins and has to live with Griffin O'Connor. After learning Paladins have killed her parents, she tries to get in on Griffin's "vengeance gig." But everything doesn't go as planned. Griffin/OC
1. Chapter 1

**NOTE: the words "hell" and "damn" are NOT bleeped out!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Jumper, or Griffin or David, or the Paladins, or their Tasers. I do own my OC named Cora Andrews. Steal her and you DIE!**

Chapter One

_ Oh, my God, _I thought as my heart began pounding against my chest, threatening to break its way out and fall onto the sidewalk. _Run!_ My legs were more than happy to oblige, and I fled the parking lot of my high school. The men with the Tasers, of course, noticed. They began chasing after me. _Why are they after me?_ I wondered vaguely. I turned the corner onto another street and there were more of them there. I froze. _What do I do?_

The men slowly cornered me into the side of a building. I had no _idea _what to do. For a moment I considered trying to fight them, but that was quickly ruled out by the cold hand of logic. _Six... seven... eight of them against one nineteen-year-old girl. Who do you think is gonna win?_ I was dead meat.

"What did I do to deserve this?" I asked no one in particular.

"Only God can have these powers." One of the guys, a tallish middle-aged dude, growled at me. I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

"Dude, seriously, you've got the wrong person. What the hell kind of powers are you talking about? Sure, I've got killer fashion sense, but that doesn't exactly make me a superhero."

"Shut up!" One of them said. He pointed a gun at me.

"Whoa, 'kay, look, shouldn't I get a trial or something if you guys really think I did something wrong?" I, unfortunately, was starting to realize what it was they must be talking about. It wasn't like I could _control_ it or anything... Why would they want to kill me for that one incident, though?

I closed my eyes and prepared to meet my fate as they closed in on me, guns in hand. _I just hope it's quick and painless..._

_ Meanwhile..._

Griffin O'Connor was asleep on the battered sofa in his lair when David showed up with a bang and a spray of seawater. This obviously woke Griffin up, and he toppled off the sofa with a shout and leapt up to face the intruder.

"David Rice. Last time I saw you, you left me in an electrical tower in a dangerous war zone." Griffin said, his voice cold, a disdainful scowl on his face.

"Griffin! Last time I saw you, you were trying to talk me out of saving my girlfriend's life!" David replied enthusiastically. He grinned and tried to give Griffin a hug. Griffin jumped behind him and hit him in the back of the head.

"Ouch!"

Griffin jumped back to face him. "That's only two percent of the payback I'd like." He snarled. "What the hell do you want? And why the hell are you dripping all over my lair, which I just cleaned up after you _destroyed_ the place?"

David rubbed his head where Griffin had hit him. "Oh, right! Well, I was tracking this Jumper chick I bumped into a few months ago, and a bunch of Paladins were after her. I tried to help, but two of them dumped me off into the ocean. Ruined my tracker, and my cell phone, and-"

"I get the bloody picture! Why the hell are you telling me this?" Griffin demanded.

"Well, I didn't want to go back there without backup."

Griffin just stared at David. "You honestly think I'm gonna help you? After what you did?" Griffin asked in an eerily calm tone. "You let Roland get away. You left me stranded. And now you want me to _help you?" _Griffin's voice steadily rose until he was shouting, unconsciously backing David into the wall of his lair.

"Please?" David asked, trying to act all cute and innocent.

"No." Griffin said. He flopped back down onto his sofa. He put a pillow over his head. "Go away."

David sighed and for a moment, it looked as though he was going to leave. Then he grabbed Griffin by the wrist and jumped back to the small town in California where he'd last seen the Jumper girl.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Well, I don't own Jumper, sadly, but I do own the OC that is about to be saved from the Paladins. (I don't own the Paladins, either, or their Tasers...) Keep reading! Also note: the words "damn" and a "hell" are NOT bleeped out!**

Chapter Two

"What the f#% was that for?" Griffin shouted when he finally got loose of David's grip. They were in a suburban neighborhood somewhere in California, hiding behind a rather high fence. Griffin could hear the ocean somewhere to his left.

"Be quiet, will you? They were over there last time I saw them." David scolded him. Griffin scowled, but shut up. David was being damn persistent, and Griffin knew he'd probably get him off his back faster if he just cooperated. David looked over the top of the fence.

"Okay, jump on three. Just follow my jump." David said. "One, two, three!" David jumped into the fight taking place on the other side of the fence. Griffin grudgingly followed, rolling his eyes.

"Griffin!" David shouted a warning. Griffin jumped just in time to avoid a Taser shot from one of the six remaining Paladins. He jumped back to his lair and grabbed a baseball bat- his favorite blunt object. He jumped back just in time to smash a Paladin in the stomach with the thing. The Paladin fell to the ground, breath knocked out of his lungs.

That was when Griffin saw the girl, the one David was so obsessed with saving. _I can see why,_ Griffin thought. She was pretty, with short, dark red hair and dark eyes and freckles. She had a cut over her left eye, but other than that she seemed to be faring rather well with the Paladins. She fought back as much as she was able, but jumped a few feet away if they tried to corner her. She didn't seem to be in control of her jumps- Griffin could tell from the look of mild surprise on her face every time she jumped.

"David!" Griffin shouted, and David jumped just in time to miss a prod with one of those electric stick things the Paladins always seemed to have. Griffin swung at the guy, jumping a few times to gain momentum before connecting his bat with the guy's face- he was down and out with a broken nose. He went after another one, smacking them in the back of their stuck-up blonde Paladin head. He grinned when he heard the slight _crunch_ of the bat crashing into the Paladin's skull. "Good riddance." Griffin muttered to the dead Paladin's body before going after another one. He jumped to avoid a bullet and hit the last standing Paladin from behind. He fell onto another Paladin, most likely dead, and didn't move. Griffin hit him again, just for good measure. _Rule #2: Double Tap,_ Griffin thought cheerfully, remembering the line from a very stupid movie he'd stolen a few weeks ago. He grinned again, feeling very satisfied with himself. He'd taken out four Paladins in a few minutes.

"Um, Griffin?" David said questioningly.

"What?" Griffin turned to face him. He was standing protectively over the Jumper girl they'd just saved.

"You're standing on one of them."

Griffin looked at his feet. He was, in fact, standing on the chest of one of the dead Paladins. Griffin laughed. "Ha! That all you got?" He asked the corpse tauntingly. He smashed his heel into the guy's face.

"Is he crazy?" The girl asked David quietly.

"A little." David answered, clearly trying not to laugh. Griffin turned to glare at him, but didn't say anything. No witty comebacks. No incomprehensible shouting. David was actually quite right. Griffin _was_ crazy, and he was bloody proud of it. At least he was man enough to admit to himself that he wasn't entirely sane.

"Well, I helped you save that chick. Can I go now, or are you gonna follow me back to my lair?" Griffin asked sarcastically.

"I've got a name, you know." The girl spoke for the first time.

"Care to enlighten us then? Actually, I've got a better idea. How about I leave, and never hear from either of you again?" Griffin gave them a casual wave, not even waiting for an answer, and jumped back to his lair. He flopped back down onto the sofa and fell asleep as if nothing had happened.

_Back in California..._

"So what is your name, anyway?" David asked as he helped the redheaded Jumper to her feet.

"Cora Andrews." She said proudly, sticking out her chin in defiance. She took on a fighting stance. "If you wanna kill me, too, I know tae kwon do. I'll kick your ass even more than I did to those jerks. Who the hell were they, anyway?"

David stared at her. She was tiny, probably shorter than Griffin. And she was _threatening_ him? "Um, I just saved your life, kiddo. You don't need to kick my ass." He smiled warmly at her. "I'm David."

"Yeah, I got that." She replied, shaking his hand warily. "And I'm not a kid, I'm nineteen. So who were those guys? And who was that British jerk?"

"Those guys were Paladins. They kill us. And-"

"Whataya mean, _us_?" Cora interrupted him.

"Um, Jumpers. Like you and me and that British guy, whose name happens to be Griffin. They kill us for a living." David explained.

"Dude." Cora said, staring off into space. "So I'm a Jumper? That's what we're called?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Why can't I do it as well as you two could, then?"  
"Cause you're new at it, I guess." David said, thinking it over. "Sure didn't take the Paladins long to track you down, then. I'd been jumping for years before they found me."

"Oh! That's probably 'cuz when I did it the first time- jumped, I mean- I ended up in the middle of the school cafeteria. Everybody nearby got soaked." Cora shuddered. David looked at her with a _huh?_ Sort of expression. "Long, twisted story." She explained, staring off into space.

"Right. Would you like to-"

"Sorry, no, gotta go home now! Bye!" Cora said suddenly, snapping out her little trance. She grinned at David, waved, then grabbed her backpack off the ground near one of the dead Paladins and dashed off into the setting sun.

"Weird." David muttered to himself before disappearing. It was, after all, an occupied neighborhood, and it wouldn't be long before someone looked out their window and saw the heap of blood-covered bodies laying on the pavement. The cops would be there soon, and David would not be around when they arrived.

Neither would his jumpscar. It glittered in the air like broken glass, but just before it flickered out of view, someone dashed out of the bushes in front of a small white house. They followed it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Jumper or the Paladins. Or David, or Griffin. I _do_ own Cora Andrews, my OC. STEAL HER AND YOU DIE!**

**Note: I've just finished reading Jumper: Griffin's Story and I realized I've been spelling his last name wrong. Sorry 'bout that. ALSO, Cora may look a bit like E.V. From the books, but as I just said, I only read the book today. Cora is MINE, I invented her. So shove off already! Er, sorry, that was rude. But really, why would I steal a character from Jumper and say she was mine? I'd get in trouble and get kicked out and the FanFiction gods would have it in for me for the rest of my bloody life. 'Kay?**

Chapter Three

David had just arrived in London when he realized that he'd left Cora Andrews in a town full of Paladins, on her way home where she would undoubtedly find her dead family and lots of people with guns and Tasers. He spun around and ran into someone- someone who, after realizing he'd crashed into an innocent bystander, disappeared into thin air. Or rather his jumpscar, which David promptly followed, forgetting about Cora Andrews and the Paladins who were about to kill her.

_Back in California..._

"Oh, crap." I muttered to myself when I realized there were more of those stupid Paladin dudes in my house. Their cars were parked outside and I could see one of them talking to my foster mom through the big kitchen window. _Well, I clearly can't go in there_. I sighed and turned around. Honestly, I didn't really care what those freaks did to my foster parents. God, I hated them. With a passion. Hated all authority figures, really. Couldn't stand people ordering me around, acting like they were better than me just because I was nineteen and they were adults. And besides, being a juvenile delinquent has its perks. Like no one harassing you at school, for instance.

_People are scared of you. They don't bug you. Why would they want to? You'd kick their asses straight into next week._ The voice teased me. God, _that_ was annoying. I tried to ignore it. I paced along the road, back to where I'd been fighting with more of the freaks. I switched the shoulder my backpack was on and kicked at a rock on the ground, thinking.

_What if they find your real mom? _The voice asked. I wondered about it for a moment. I had known her for exactly seven years before she'd ended up in rehab for her drinking problem. And my real father... _Ha! A glance in a courtroom isn't exactly a good way to meet your biological father, now is it?_ I'd stayed with him for a few years after Mom had gotten sent off, and he wasn't that bad. Smoked too much, played a banjo, had a really annoying southern accent, but he _was_ my dad.

_God, I hope those Paladin weirdos don't track down my real parents. _I thought, imagining them lying dead on the floor... _Yuck. But then again, my mom is in rehab. Why would they break into a place full of nutjobs and addicts? _I tried to convince myself, but I was still worried. _You should be,_ The voice warned. Then it was silent. Gone. _I dunno where the damn thing goes when it's not bugging me, but I hope to hell it's not in someone else's head. _I thought. I kicked at a stone on the sidewalk and adjusted my backpack again, glad I'd grabbed my cell phone and ipod before heading off this morning.

I kept walking, not really knowing where to, just back in the direction I'd come from. I didn't particularly care that there might be more of those freaks hanging around. Paladins. Whatever. _I wonder what was up with those two guys that saved me? A crazy Brit and a cute, overly confident guy who was also the guy who'd lent me $200 when I ran away last month... Odd. Very odd._

I continued along the slowly darkening road, turning things over in my head. _I'm a Jumper, then. Hmm. What's up with that? They looked like they could actually control what they were doing. Why can't I? And WHY is that Brit guy looking through those dead dudes' pockets?_

I stopped short, noticing him up ahead on the road. He did appear to be looking through their pockets- possibly for weapons or spare change. With what I'd seen of the guy, I really wouldn't be too surprised.

"Hey, you!" I shouted. "British Guy? You with the face!" He finally looked up at me with an expression of disinterest.

"Oh, it's you. Bugger off. I need the money and you... probably don't." He looked half asleep, as if he'd just woken up from not getting enough sleep and been forced to come here. Which I really doubted he had. You can never be sure of these sort of things with foreign-types. He could just be pretending to look tired so that he could attack me when I wasn't expecting it.

"Oh, so you _are_ looking for money. What's your name again?" I stared down at him. He was covered in blood, none of it his own. That was a little creepy.

"Didn't I just tell you to bugger off?" He asked calmly, standing up to face me. He slightly taller than me, and actually kind of scary.

"Okay, I get the picture. I'm Cora, by the way, Cora Andrews. Where'd your friend David go? I thought he'd be hanging around here, too." I knew I was pushing it, but I didn't care. It was rather fun to get older men very angry at me and then watch their looks of surprise when I kicked their asses.

He didn't get that angry, though. "David is NOT my friend, kiddo. Now, do I have to fight you off? Do you _want_ to fight me?" He asked the question earnestly, like he would actually fight a girl who was younger _and_ smaller than him.

"Seriously? That'd be great!" I answered cheerfully, dropping my bag on the ground.

"You have issues. Go home, okay? I don't need some inexperienced Jumper mucking about trying to get me to fight with them." He sighed and disappeared, leaving a glasslike fracture in hovering in the air where he'd just been standing. I stared at it with morbid curiosity, then picked up my bag and, carefully, reached out a hand to touch it.

_New York City..._

It was very early in the morning in NY, where David ended up following the mysterious Jumper he'd ran into. There wasn't much traffic, so David was not at all surprised by the fact that the other Jumper crossed the street where there wasn't a crosswalk. What _did_ surprise him was the five men waiting for him on the other side of the road. They were all tough-looking and most had tattoos; they all had the same black leather jacket with a red _J_ on the sleeve.

_ A Jumper gang?_ David wondered. Unless the other men didn't know about their friend's ability, that was really the only plausible answer he could think of. That also meant he shouldn't jump near them because they could follow him, so he would have to walk away and jump from someplace else if he wanted to avoid confronting them. And he sure as hell wanted to avoid _that_. A fight with them would certainly end in his own death.

He sulked off in defeat, attempting to salvage what was left of his pride by flipping them off before turning down an alley. Though he tried to block out their mocking laughter and concentrate on jumping, his jump was messy. He set off the sprinklers in his new apartment.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Jumper or the Paladins. Or David, or Griffin. I _do_ own Cora Andrews, my OC. STEAL HER AND YOU DIE!**

**Also, the places in Virginia and Texas mentioned in this chapter do not exist. I made them up.**

Chapter Four

"Hey!" I said, shocked, as I appeared in a small room, walls made out of some kind of brown stone. Charred drawings, maps, newspapers and the like were taped all over the walls. Boxes were piled in every corner, filled with everything from food and beer to broken pieces of cell phones and ipods. Griffin O'Conner was rummaging through one of the larger ones, which was full of weapons.

"Uh, hi. How'd I get here?" I said rather loudly. Griffin spun around angrily, a long blade clutched in his left hand and a Taser in the right.

"How the hell did you get here?" He demanded.

"Um, I touched a sparkly floaty thing?" I said meekly. "I have no idea."

"You followed my jumpscar," he said, almost to himself. He glared at me. "Go home, will you?"

"I can't. The Paladin-whatchamacall-'ems just got my foster parents." I stuck my hands in my pockets and shrugged.

Griffin seemed surprised at my nonchalant reaction. "And you don't care?"

"Twenty-millionth set of foster parents this month. Why should I care?" I asked. Then, "Oh, crap! They're not gonna go after my real parents, are they?"

Griffin sighed. "Yes, they probably will. Could you just, you know, f*** off now?" He waved me away and turned back to the box of weapons.

"How? Where am I, anyway?"

"In my lair. Go away."

I frowned and began pacing back and forth on the charred red rug that covered most of the floor. "I can't do that jumping thing as well as you, you know. I'm not even sure I can control it."

Griffin growled to himself. "Well, that's just bloody lovely, isn't it?"

"Can I stay here?" I asked, my voice high and childish for a moment. I grinned at my own eagerness to annoy someone almost as crazy as myself.

"NO!" Griffin spun around, jumped, and was right in my face. He held a knife against my chest. "You need to go away, NOW. Or I may just f***ing KILL YOU. Understood?"

I almost started crying. My head began to hurt. "But... but I can't."

He backed away, seeing the tears in my eyes. He shook his head, frowning, then jumped behind me. He grabbed me by my waist and jumped me somewhere. My eyes squeezed shut in fear.

"Stay away from my lair, alright? Stay away from me. Go bother David or something." Griffin said, right behind my ear. His breath tickled the back of my neck and I shivered and spun around.

But he was already gone. He'd left me in the middle of the street, one near where the fight with the Paladins had been.

"Damn you, stupid British guy!" I shouted at the silence.

"Cora?" I heard a voice say from a few yards away. It was that other guy.

"Hey! Other Jumper! Where are you?" I whispered loudly.

"Behind you." His voice said, a ways behind me. I spun to look at him.

"You! I need to go to the nuthouse on Cherry Blossom Avenue in Clearway, Virginia. Can you get me there?" I demanded.

He stared down at me in the dying sun. The barest golden glow escaped from the horizon behind him, making it look like he was glowing. "Do you have a photo?" he asked. I nodded and pulled my duct-tape wallet out of my pocket, forcing my eyes away from his face. He was cute. But I tried hard to stop thinking about that as I worried about my parents. I flipped through my wallet until I found a faded Polaroid of my mother and I standing in front of the main doors of the drug abuse recovery ward of Cherry Hill Sanatorium. I handed the photo to David carefully.

"Will this work?" I asked nervously, bouncing up and down on my heels as he looked over the photo. He frowned, then his face lightened and I felt relief rush over me.

"Yeah. Hold onto my arm, okay?" He held out his hand and I took it, liking the warmth that spread through me at the touch of another person. Then we jumped.

We landed at the doorway and it was pitch black outside. I felt myself fall into the grass beside the sidewalk. David was right next to me; I could hear his breathing.

"I'm going in." I said dramatically, getting up and adjusting my backpack. My eyes began to adjust to the darkness and I reached out a hand to help David up. He ignored it and stood up himself, holding out the photo. I took it and stuffed it back into my wallet. "Can you wait out here, please?" I asked, feeling a little scared and very anxious.

"Mmm-hmm." David said, nodding. I turned away and walked over to the doorway, up the three stone steps, and pushed the door open.

A blast of warm air hit me as I entered; I almost hadn't noticed how chilly it was here compared to California. I paced through the dark hallways, trying to make my footfalls against the shiny wood floor as silent as possible. Every movement I made seemed immensely loud in here. I continued on as quickly as possible until I found the room I remembered to be my mother's. 243. I could barely see the bronze number on the door.

"Mom?" I said quietly as I opened the door. I peered in nervously.

Her throat had been cut. The small bed, the only piece of furniture in the room, was covered in blood. There was a knife on the floor, and my mother's face was deathly pale.

I was too late.

I screamed and flinched, jumping accidentally back down where David was. I crashed into him. "She's dead," I whimpered, starting to cry, "she's dead. They cut her throat. Oh, god..." David put an arm around me and I wondered why he was being so nice, so trusting. He had no idea who I was, I wasn't even sure he knew why I had gone in there. "My mom..." I spluttered, trying to explain, tears coming full-on now. I felt like such an idiot.

At least the stupid voice wasn't bugging me. My head started to hurt and I hoped I hadn't jinxed myself and brought it back. But I didn't hear anything.

"Are you okay?" David asked after a while. I gulped and nodded, pulling my wallet out again.

"My dad," I said, handing him a photo of my father in front of his house in Texas. "We have to find my dad."

David just nodded kindly and took my hand. Then we jumped.

**Hey, CMD here! Sorry I haven't updated in ages. I know a bunch of people wanted me to finish this story. Sorry, but it's nowhere near done yet. But I'll do some more soon. I promise. Reviews are always appreciated, by the way! :D**

**XOXO CMDonovann**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Jumper or the Paladins. Or David, or Griffin. I _do_ own Cora Andrews, my OC. STEAL HER AND YOU DIE!**

Chapter Five

"So I just think about the place, and I go there?" I asked skeptically, staring up at David. It had been a week since we'd checked out my parents places. Both were dead, both had been declared as suicides in the news. I knew who had done it, though, and I was determined to get revenge on those Paladins. I knew the only way to do that was to learn to control my jumping, so I had David teaching me how to do it properly. I was staying in his apartment. It was small and abnormally clean and smelled like those pine-scented air fresheners people hang from their rearview mirrors, but there was a guest room and food and clean clothes and a shower, so I was happy. The voice hadn't been back yet, either. Things were pretty good, really, except that I was now an orphan being chased by insane Paladins who want to kill me for something I can't control.

"Just picture the place in your mind. Close your eyes." He said. I did, hesitantly, trying to remember where it was I wanted to go. "Imagine what it's like to be there. What it smells like there, how warm or cold it was the last time you were there. What you heard. Specific things you saw, even. That helps, sometimes." It was hard to concentrate on where I wanted to go when I was torn between wanting to be in David's arms and wanting to be kicking those stupid Paladin's asses.

Instead I ended up in the bathroom of David's apartment. I have no _idea _why I would go there, of all places. But at least I'd managed to jump when I wanted to. Unfortunately, I knocked over everything that was sitting on the counter by the sink, as well as all the bottles of shampoo and stuff that were sitting on the edge of the bathtub. The mirror fell down, too, crashing loudly into the marble sink. I flinched as it cracked into several pieces.

"Well, that didn't work too well." I said cheerfully, sauntering out of the bathroom and back into the living room where David was standing, looking confused.

"Where did you go?" He asked, a look of puzzlement on his face.

"The bathroom."

"Oh." He frowned. "So that's what all the crashing was."

"Uh-huh." We were both silent. He stared at me, his eyes not betraying any sort of emotion. My stomach fluttered and, for a second, I was afraid he was mad at me.

But then he said, "You wanna go get lunch or something? I'm starving."

I sighed. "Okay. Sure." David took my hand and jumped.

_Halfway across the world, in Griffin's lair..._

"HELL YES!" Griffin shouted triumphantly as he threw a game controller across the room. He stared at his tiny TV; the screen said, in fluorescent green letters, _YOU'VE WON. PLAY AGAIN?_ Griffin laughed and took a swig from a can of beer. There were several other empty cans scattered around him, and a pack of unopened ones waiting.

Suddenly, he heard a beeping noise several feet to his left. He looked up just in time to see a flashing red bomb roll in from the open doorway out into the desert.

"Shit." He said, jumping across the room, grabbing his bag of supplies and weapons, and jumping the hell out of there.

He appeared in a bathroom stall in a bar in New York he liked. He could almost imagine the explosion as his lair was blown to pieces.

"Brilliant." He muttered angrily, stomping out of the bathroom. He had no idea what to do now. All his info on the Paladins he was tracking had been in the lair. He'd have to start from scratch.

_Or I could just get some bait to lure them all to me, _he thought, remembering the Jumper girl David had dragged him into saving a week ago. If he could find her, get her to do something really stupid, the Paladins would come crashing down on them. The girl might get killed, sure, but what did that matter to Griffin? She was probably just as annoying as David.

Maybe he could even get rid of David, too, while he was at it. _What an excellent plan._


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Jumper or the Paladins. Or David, or Griffin. I _do_ own Cora Andrews, my OC. STEAL HER AND YOU DIE!**

Chapter Six

"So what's up with that guy Griffin, anyway?" I asked David as we were eating ice cream in a little shop in Hawaii.

"Why do you ask?" He said, licking what was left of a triple-scoop chocolate ice cream cone.

"I dunno. I just thought of him." I said, wiping a drop of cherry-rum ice cream off my face.

David shrugged. "I dunno. The Paladins killed his parents when he was a little kid. He kills them for fun. For revenge, too, I guess, but I get the feeling he just likes killing."

I shuddered. I was kind of like that, too. I had shot a squirrel with a slingshot, once, and watched as it twitched on the ground until it died. I wanted to get revenge on the Paladins just as much as Griffin seemed to. I hoped, deep down, that I wouldn't become what he was. But I was afraid I already had.

_You know you're just like him, _the voice said, _that's why you hate him. You see in him what you're scared to admit is also in you._

_ You're a killer, Cora Andrews._

"Nooooo," I groaned, smacking myself on the forehead with my free hand.

"What?" David looked down at me, his kind grey eyes full of concern.

"It's back!" I said. Then I realized he didn't know I heard voices in my head. Well, one voice. But still.

"What's back?" David asked, confused.

"Um, my headache." I said. "It's soooo annoying. I get it when I'm in the heat for too long," I lied. "Can we go back to your apartment?"

David frowned. He knew I was lying. "Okay." He said slowly. He threw his half-eaten ice cream cone into a garbage can and grabbed my hand.

"Wait!" I said before he could jump. "I want to try it myself."

"Okay." He nodded. I avoided his gaze as I pulled my hand from his and closed my eyes. I knew he'd jump back to his apartment, not follow my jumpscar. He trusted me. I felt bad about it, doing this, since he did trust me.

_He doesn't know you're crazy, though, _the voice taunted. _Would he trust you if he knew how screwed up you are?_

_ Shut up, voice,_ I though fiercely, concentrating on exactly where I wanted to go. Griffin's cave.

**Sorry this chapter is so short! I figured what I'm gonna write next will make more sense if I end it here. Reviews are appreciated!**

**CMDonovann**


	7. Chapter 7

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Jumpers, Paladins, David Griffin or anyone else from the movie JUMPER. I do own Cora Andrews, one of my first OCs ever. Steal her and you die! I will send Griffin after you with a flamethrower and baseball bat.**

Chapter Seven

_Griffin's cave, _I thought. He had called it his lair. I remembered his face, inches from mine as he held a knife to my chest, threatening me with death. His breath on my face, his anger burning me like fire. I remembered his hands around my waist as he picked me up and jumped me away from his lair, his home. I remembered his voice, whispering in my ear, just before he left me to be found by David.

I felt the air whooshing around me, and I smelled smoke. My eyes snapped open, and for a moment I wonder if my jump took me to the wrong place. But no, this was definitely Griffin's lair. What was left of it, anyway. The place looked like a bomb had gone off. Chunks of sand-swept stone covered in soot and blast marks covered what used to be the floor. Bits of burnt paper floated in the air around me, only just beginning to settle. Pieces of twisted, melted metal stuck up here and there.

"Griffin?" I said timidly. I was scared. Had he been killed? I pushed my way through the mess. "Griffin!" I cried out desperately. _There's no way he survived this, _the voice said, almost happy. _He's gone, Cora. Face it._

Then something moved in the far corner of the pile of rubble. "Griffin!" shouted, fighting my way through the pile toward him.

"What?" he stuck his head out of the mess, his face covered in soot. He appeared unharmed. "You again." He said, frowning. "What the hell do _you_ want? I'm trying to find what's left of my stuff, if you don't mind."

"Oh. So you weren't here when whatever happened to this place happened. That would explain why you aren't dead." I was suddenly angry at myself for caring if he was okay. I didn't even like him. Did I? _Do you? He certainly hates you, _the voice teased me.

Griffin scowled. "You disappointed?" He got up to face me. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

I considered what to say for a moment. "I need your help, Griffin."

He laughed. "My _help?_ You need help? That's great, kid, but I have places to be and Paladins to kill."

"I know. David told me. He said you like killing people. Like, for fun." I paused at the surprised look on his face. "That's why I need you, Griffin. I need to kill the Paladins that killed my parents."

"I thought you didn't care about your parents?" Griffin said, starting to paw through the piles of rubble for something.

"My real parents, Griffin. They killed my _real_ mom and dad." I said softly.

"Well that's a bloody shame. But I have to build myself a new lair. I can't help you with your little vengeance gig. Go away."

"Griffin! Seriously! I know you want to help me, you like killing Paladins. I want to, too. And if you need someplace to stay, you can come live with me and David. His apartment is awesome."

"Oh, so you're living with the boy idiot now, are you? Well, I won't be joining you. Bugger off now, will you?"

"For god's sake," I muttered. I grabbed Griffin by the back of his shirt and jumped him to David's apartment. I was actually kind of surprised I had done the jump properly.

When I let go of Griffin, he spun around and punched me square in the jaw. I fell over backwards, onto David's sofa.

"What's going on?" David called, ducking out of my spare room to see what was going on. "Cora! There you are!" He jumped over to me and pulled me onto my feet to hug me. "Why's Griff here?"

"Umm, I went and got him?" I said. "David, I think I have to avenge my parents. I got him because he knows how to track the Paladins down and kill them and stuff."

Griffin stared at us. "What makes you think I'm gonna help you?"

"Cause you want to. You know it." I grinned at him, knowing I was right. And since his lair was gone, he didn't really have any choice.

He glared from me to David, then back at me. He sighed. "Fine," Griffin scowled, "But if you get killed, it's not my fault."


	8. Chapter 8

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Jumpers, Paladins, David Griffin or anyone else from the movie JUMPER. I do own Cora Andrews, one of my first OCs ever. Steal her and you die! I will send Griffin after you with a flamethrower and baseball bat.**

Chapter Eight

My heart was racing. I panicked, jumped away, and jumped back to the same spot only to be hit in the stomach with a baseball bat. "Oh, c'mon, you can do better than that," Griffin taunted, swaggering away with the bat still clutched in his hand.

"We've been doing this for an hour. Can't I rest for a minute?" I protested. I was exhausted. Griffin and I had been practicing fighting techniques in the basement of David's apartment complex for more than an hour. _Like three, _I thought miserably. I hadn't managed to hit him once.

"No." Griffin scowled. "Try it again."

I frowned, set my jaw, and jumped behind him. He wasn't ready, and I grabbed the baseball bat from him and jumped back to my original spot, jumping again in intervals as I raced toward him. I swung the bat and it hit him in the side of the head, _hard._ He fell to the side and lay on the floor, unmoving.

"Griffin?" I knelt next to him, worried I had hurt him badly. "Griffin, are you okay?"

"That," he said, clutching his head, "was f***ing _excellent_." He held his head with both hands and moaned in some sort of perverse pleasure at his own pain. He was grinning.

"Can you sit up?" I asked, wondering if maybe I'd given him a concussion.

"Uh, yeah." He forced himself into a crumpled sitting position, still holding his head. "Ow, _that's_ gonna leave a bruise," he muttered, wincing. "Be right back, okay?"

He jumped away, taking the baseball bat with him.

_Upstairs in David's apartment..._

"Urgh." Griffin held his head and stumbled into the kitchen of the apartment to find some ibuprofen. Instead he found David, making a turkey sandwich with some sort of green stuff on it.

"What the hell is that?" Griffin asked, staring at it.

"I dunno. It's pretty good, though. Got it in India." David took a bite of the sandwich. "So Cora finally managed to take a whack at you? 'Bout time."

"Shut up." Griffin stood up on his toes and tried to reach the medicine cabinet above the fridge. He was too short. "Is there ibuprofen in there?"

"Doubt it." David grinned. "So, you like Cora?"

"Huh?" Griffin was surprised by the question. Of course he didn't _like_ Cora! He had a plan to get her and David killed and _out of his f***ing hair!_ He didn't _like _her! "Hell, no," Griffin growled, "you can have her."

David chuckled. "Then why did you insist on being the one to teach her how to fight?"

"Because you suck at it!" Griffin shot angrily back at David.

"Everything alright up here?" Cora asked, appearing at the doorway.

"Yes," Griffin said. "No," David said at the same time.

"Ooo-kaaay. Well, hurry up, Griffin. I wanna beat you up some more." She smiled. Then she was gone. David laughed.

"What?" Griffin demanded, turning to face him.

"Griffin and Cora, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-"

Griffin shouted something unintelligible and leapt angrily at David, but he jumped away just in time and left Griffin with his face in a puddle of the green sandwich stuff. "F***!" Griffin swore, wiping it off. He jumped back down to the basement, still majorly pissed at David.


End file.
